Evaluation of spatial analysis application for urban emergency management

Evaluation of spatial analysis application for urban emergency management Abdalla SpringerPlus (2016) 5 2081 DOI 10 1186/s40064 016 3723 y REVIEW Evaluation of spatial analysis application for urban e[.]

Evaluation of spatial analysis application

for urban emergency management

Rifaat Abdalla*

Abstract

Background: This paper provides multidisciplinary scope to the utilization of geospatial data frameworks for urban

disaster management with accentuation on particular events The emergency management events presented in this review are universally known and represent high risk for different parts of the world

Results: The discussion starts with addressing the application issues related to how spatial analysis can be used

intending to disaster management operations by characterizing its ease of use and impediments in managing the inquiries of vulnerability and hazard assessment It also highlights best practices for the approaches to integrating spatial data for hazard mapping and risk perception

Conclusions: The goal of this study is to give conceptual coverage to appropriate solutions for emergency

prepar-edness and response, using spatial analysis and GIS The paper emphasized that among different issues that may confront the use of spatial analysis, is the accuracy of data and time of processing, in addition to collective coordina-tion of stakeholders working in the field The findings of this research conclude that a challenge to possible risk reduc-tion is furnishing disaster managers with access to informareduc-tion and methodologies that may help them in analyzing, evaluating and mapping hazard models

Keywords: GIS, Emergency management, Urban centers, Spatial analysis, Environmental modeling

© The Author(s) 2016 This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Background

GIS applications in Disaster Management are

progres-sively turning into a necessary component of disaster and

emergency management activities in many parts of the

world The time considerations are extremely critical in

emergency management operations Emergency

Manag-ers are required to take significant decisions, promptly

to provide fast response to extreme situations The

spa-tial dimension of geospaspa-tial data makes it exceptionally

critical for decision-makers in the different phases of

emergency management operations It is important for

policy makers to have the right information at the ideal

time exhibited off base models to permit them to react,

arrange or moderate catastrophes The temporal nature

of disasters does not allow emergency managers to gather

the critical data, in a timely, in many situations As such,

more often, pre-arranged disaster management scenarios are utilized Becerra-Fernandez et  al (2008) GIS Tech-nology is capable of filling up the gap of perception and investigation of simulating emergency scenarios showing various situations and their temporal attributes This per-mits disaster managers to have access to sufficient data stored in spatial databases and exhibited in a PC created maps or intuitive models Miura et al (2007) GIS can be exceptionally useful to make well-thought counter dis-aster response patterns, which can address the overall population It is a helpful tool in disaster management planning, tabletop activities, and a fundamental element

of Emergency Operations Centers (EOC) (ESRI 1999) GIS gives a component to perception and demonstrating

of primary data different levels of details and for various regions after a disaster strikes (ESRI 1999) This provides

a user-driven approach, which envelops the phases of dis-aster management, to bolster the procedure of improved primary leadership and builds the level of inclusion of

Open Access

*Correspondence: rmabdalla@kau.edu.sa

Department of Hydrographic Surveying, Faculty of Maritime Studies, King

Abdulaziz University, P O Box 80401, Jeddah 21589, Kingdom of Saudi

Arabia

every group of workforce related exercises and systematic

methods (Smirnov et al 2006)

Discussion about disaster management is tending to

the issues of preparedness This is a crucial part of

dis-aster and emergency management and can assume an

indispensable part if contingency activities, which gets

to be vital The convenience of GIS as a decision support

system is in helping disaster managers and emergency

first responders to falls in the following:

1 Risk and Threads Assessment

2 What-if scenario modeling

3 Maintaining situational awareness

4 Allocation of Resources and documenting

disrup-tions

5 Alerting and notification of communities

6 Minimizing vital service disruptions during the

response stage

Saadatseresht et  al (2009) have presented the factors

above are especially of significance from spatial

analy-sis point of view In an emergency management

situa-tion It showed that spatial analysis can be performed

for emergency management evacuation operations, in

order to relocated population at risk for a safer location,

this is usually a complicated process, dense population

Anjum et al (2011) indicated that it is important to use

utilize the state-of-the-art of spatial analysis tools for

emergency planning operations, related to evacuation

of masses, during extreme events A major challenge

for using spatial analysis as a part of search and rescue

plans is in deciding the evacuation process to relocate the

evacuees to a safer place This indicates that supporting

the choice of where and from which street every evacuee

ought to go is an essential factor in the best utilization of

spatial analysis capabilities (Cova and Church 1997)

Sev-eral factors are involved in determining the efficiency of

utilizing the process of spatial analysis for disaster

man-agement To adequately accomplish the point of spatial

investigation in crisis administration operations, a few

goals are brought into thought and fulfilled at the same

time through this paper These objectives are (a) how a

decision-maker can utilize the effectiveness of spatial

analysis for prioritizing important decisions, during an

emergency (b) What are essential capacities that spatial

analysis can help with amid disaster management cycle

in the ten chosen disaster themes focused in this paper?

(c) How decision-makers could better actualize spatial

analysis process as a significant aspect of their everyday

operations

Successful disaster management calls for

includ-ing multi-modal decision-makinclud-ing competencies; that

includes aggregates at all levels of relief and response,

notwithstanding total relief endeavors that address the origin of vulnerability Morrow (1999) the vulnerability

of group is correctly credited to the socioeconomic vari-ables that influence the group, i.e., the directly affected, whether expanded or diminished as a consequence of the socio-economic well-being of a community, as it identi-fies with their everyday practice (ESRI 1999) Emergency Management planners, policy makers, risk analysts and first responders usually attempt to characterize and find high-risk factors utilizing Community Vulnerability Maps, consolidating this information into GIS frame-works, and for this, spatial analysis is essential (Kumar

2013)

Emergency management operations

Comprehensive Emergency Management (CEM) is a concept that ensures the effectiveness of all aspects of emergency management by anticipating, minimizing the risks introduced by various emergencies, by prepar-ing for emergency situations, and by helpprepar-ing in recover-ing from an emergencies This approach is systematically addressed by Gordon (2002), where he provided a frame-work for comprehensive approach for dealing with risks According to Bullock et  al (2006), the impact of dis-aster can impact every community, state or authorities within the proximity of the event As such, there is no person immune to the impact of disasters According to Mileti (1999) many disaster losses are to some degree predictable, which make them manageable to a certain extent Effective processes in disaster management help

to reduce devastation and high costs at both the local and regional levels A comprehensive emergency manage-ment system is composed of the interaction of policies and procedures, as well as the institutional and financial mechanisms, to constitute community-based approach

to disaster risk management (Carter 1991)

Urban emergency management

This part covers a critical review on the use of spatial analysis in some urban emergency management situ-ations It provides an inside and out scope of the work cited in this regard to in such manner that it highlights the process of enhanced decision-making process The extent of the scope will concentrate on the most impor-tant progressions in the utilization of spatial analysis methods for emergency management in urban situations

Spatial analysis applications in natural hazards

Earthquakes and humanitarian coordination

The literature on GIS and humanitarian coordination has started by first looking at the different approaches

in which GIS can be utilized for effective coordination Regardless of the way that GIS has been predominately

seen, within the disaster management community, as a

cartographic tool, an approach to managing initial

analy-sis and visualization, or an electronic navigational system,

this does not attractively depict the best way of GIS

utili-zation in humanitarian assistance (Currion 2006) There

are numerous potential utilizations of GIS for

humanitar-ian aid For instance, the usage of enhancement, which is

the use of cutting edge GIS calculations to take care of an

outline issue, can be utilized to discover reasonable areas

for clearing For example, a support investigation, for

analysis of spatial relationships using GIS as a tool, can be

employed to gauge vulnerability to various hazards based

on proximity

In 2005, a Complex Humanitarian Emergencies Study

by Verjee (2005) drew from contextual analyses and

examples in innovative progression to format the

poten-tial GIS applications for humanitarian emergencies,

which were:

1 Mapping and Cartography (Land use Mapping,

Infrastructure Mapping, Demographic Mapping,

Logistics, and Sustainability)

2 Outreach, Media and Communications (Public

Access to Information, Reporting, Program

Assess-ment, News Coverage)

3 Modeling and Simulation for Disaster Scenarios

(Practice, drills, and exercises, Data information flow,

planning for contingencies)

4 Environmental Management and Planning (Planning,

Yield Cultivation, resources assessment)

5 Risk and Hazard Management (seismic analysis, site

selection and planning, and water level estimation

and mitigation)

6 Vulnerability Analysis and Assessment (Early

Warn-ing frameworks for the dry season, desertification

and starvation, Epidemics modeling and Tsunami

Planning)

7 Risk Reduction (‘problem areas’ distinguishing proof

and relief programming)

8 Response Policies and Organizational Management

(administration, planning, and training)

Table 1 is demonstrating the capabilities of GIS in this

situation In spite of the fact that there are various

appli-cations of spatial analysis as a GIS technique, they all

share an ultimate target, which is to which is to exploit

the situational the situational awareness to all areas

tak-ing an interest so fundamental concerns can be perceived

and after that together achieved

A late analysis by Eveleigh et al (2007) and Al-Ahmadi

et  al (2014) has utilized spatial analysis for earthquake

disaster studies The adopted approach recognizes

that within the scope of humanitarian assistance “GIS

innovation is battling with how to address complex issues that require the modeling of rapidly changing dynamic phenomena, feature, behavior, data and They concluded that there is a high potential for GIS-based assessment models to give the leap forward expected to address the random way of humanitarian emergencies

Bally et al (2005) presented the use of remote sensing for Humanitarian Aid, showing that the utilization of remote detecting and GIS permitted 200,000 IDPS to be migrated to longer-term settlements that had a renewable water source and with improvement potential in regards

to sanitation, farming, and even hydropower Another powerful GIS application used to support humanitarian emergencies was The Global Connection Project, which included Carnegie Mellon University, NASA, Google and National Geographic, contributing to the relief planning for October 8, 2005, South Asian earthquake and tsu-nami In this project, GIS was utilized to gain and convey high-resolution imagery from Digital Globe’s Quickbird

Wild fire

ESRI (1999) has shown an approach to depicting a rapidly spreading fire event precisely; spatial analysis can be uti-lized to recognize high-risk fire zones and set up buffer zones for evacuation Notwithstanding the determination

of high-risk regions, spatial analysis can be combined with statistical analysis as a verification method for the specifying areas of final damage assessment, in addition

to deciding to provide visual models for highly impacted areas, according to Goodchild (2006) Lentile et al (2006) gave direction by distinguishing potential layers that can

be utilized for urban fire identification The initial step was to employ scope and longitude directions to plot the different flames (based upon a decision of lightning or human-ignited fire) during a particular period Fire infor-mation may seem, by all accounts, to be situated inside waterways However, this is mainly a reason for adjust-ing buffer zones to give some slack to such errors The process of connecting attributes information and pre-sent four analytical techniques for simulation and visu-alization out of control fire In spite of the fact that their emphasis particularly on human-brought ablaze catas-trophes, in proposing the four prescribed alternatives for finish urban fire examination:

a the territory influenced

b temporal expand

c spatial extend

d probability The urban fire hazard is hard to avert Notwithstand-ing, through the recognizable specification of the high-risk zones, the recurrence of flame can be minimized

Tr Transf

Analysis G

Jaiswal et  al (2002) have demonstrated that GIS when

joined with satellite imagery, can be useful in identifying

high-hazard regions within given vicinity and restrict the

fire spread and thus minimize the impact Jaiswal et  al

(2002) have also examined the utilization of ArcGIS for

this idea, declaring that the mix of topographic

founda-tion data and remote sensing for vegetafounda-tion mapping can

make a precise estimation of high-risk fire territories

uti-lized for moderation and reaction purposes In Jaiswal

et al (2002) different layers of vegetation, slope,

proxim-ity to settlements, and distance from roads were made to

provide an indication about high-risk fire regions After

this data was plotted, buffer zones of 1000, 2000, 3000,

and 4000 m surrounding the high-risk zones were

plot-ted to extend the distinctive levels of danger Although

they have investigated a particular instance of India, the

concept of using GIS spatial analysis consolidated with

satellite imagery for distinguishing areas prone to

high-risk of fire hazard has demonstrated the adequacy of GIS

as a tool for urban disaster management If GIS can be

utilized to model and simulate high-risk fire zones with

buffers, which gives benchmark understanding that GIS

could likewise be used to show damage assessment

mod-els using different software and different data layers,

regardless of the geographic location

Pradhan et  al (2007) utilized GIS examination to

decide fire susceptibility, using a “vector spatial database”

with GIS and consolidated with topographic information,

fuel information, base overview focuses, and maps This

took into account figuring variables, which were then

changed over to a raster grid, recognizing 112 cells inside

the fire events A frequency-based proportion approach

was used to characterize the “connections between

hot-spot areas and the components in the study area” The

challenges, notwithstanding, were in processing “a

sig-nificant amount of data” The conclusion is drawn from

Pradhan et  al (2007) on the utilization of such

projec-tions for fire risk mapping and mitigation was quite

com-pelling In foreseeing fire susceptibility when utilizing

frequency analysis, the prescribed results were

recom-mended to be used with alert, according to Pradhan et al

(2007) It was suggested that the analysis approaches

their examination is used fundamentally amid fire event,

which proposes mapping fire-influenced zones instead of

driving toward the relief bit of fire disaster management

process

Floods

Correia et  al (1998) demonstrated that GIS had been

seen as a successful tool to organize and visualize data

from different sources on far-reaching floodplain

admin-istration As a part of this overall approach to

man-age floodplain manman-agement, it is crucial to have the

ability to predict the aftereffects of different situations

as to flooded regions and related regions at risk Mor-row (1999) discussed the hydrologic and water controlled zones accept a crucial part, and there is much to get in uniting these exhibiting capacities in a GIS system The perspective of the using Intergraph GIS with IDRISI GIS provided an effective way in dealing with flood emergen-cies in both 2D and 3D Using multidimensional mod-eling usually extended the flexibility of using GIS as an instrument for flood modeling Gogoaşe Nistoran et  al (2016) have shown the effectiveness of spatial analysis using GIS for modeling flood inundation as a result of dam-break

The role of GIS in Flood Disaster Management was ana-lyzed by Cova (1999), through the perspective of Com-prehensive Emergency Management (CEM) and its four phases: mitigation, preparedness, response and recov-ery In the wake of a disaster, GIS is getting the chance

to be vital in supporting damage assessment, evaluation, and cost estimation for development In the aftermath of

a catastrophe, GIS is a valuable tool in supporting cost evaluation and rebuilding Abbas et al (2009) proposed

a GIS-based contemplate regarding the change of surge showing and representation for Allahabad Sadar Sub-District (India) This joins the framework, the method-ology/approach that planned to research the degree for spatial analysis application for a rapid response The flood affected zones have been recognized, and their positions are checked, where the GIS handiness has been manhan-dled to get the spatial information for the fruitful calam-ity organization for surge affected reaches The adopted approach has helped in recognizing issues that may upgrade the present practices of emergency management organizations The approach gives a suitable and quick fundamental authority instrument for snappy response

to emergencies if used appropriately, which along these lines would help in minimizing loss of life and property Al-Sabhan et al (2003) proposed a GIS-construct study,

in light of the change of flood levels and representation This consolidates the arrangement, the investigated the present status of progressing hydrological models used for flood modeling and risk mitigation It indicated how electronic systems could overcome a bit of the obstruc-tion of existing structures While hydrological GIS-based models are open, they are ineffectually suited to the sistent application and are frequently not primarily con-solidated with spatial datasets

Buchele et al (2006) and Chen et al (2009) discussed

a modern approach for integrated flood risk assessment

In light of the setting of a more relative examination of different flood risk assessment models, for mapping, in the midst of extreme situations The ampleness of syn-chronous and in-house proprietary methods using was

analyzed by Chen and Zhan (2008) The study used an

operator-based technique to model movement streams

at the level of individual vehicles and examines the

total practices of modeling and visualization of moving

objects, during an emergency De Silva (2000) presented

a model Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) which

was normal for credibility making blueprints for

emer-gency mapping, where response operations using spatial

information dealing with and representation points of

confinement in a GIS It interfaces together with the

geo-spatial part of the geo-spatial analysis section is given by the

GIS The SDSS, so that gives a detailed spatial

informa-tion of flood zone extension and involved layers

Moreri et  al (2008) proposed an approach to

man-age making an internet-based Geographic Information

Systems (WebGIS) application, which would reinforce

people living in flood zones, which may at one point

be unprotected in light of their closeness to the stream

and the adequacy of the flooding Zerger and Wealands

(2004) showed that spatially quick hydrodynamic flood

models could expect an essential part in average danger

peril reducing A key element of these models that make

them suitable for risk exhibiting is the capacity to give

time-blueprint immersion data about the onset, length,

and embarking to an emergency situation Such data

can be the start for region utilize orchestrating, for

map-ping, for clearing directing, and for finding sensible crisis

organization to give a couple of representations hazard

responses To address these confinements, a structure

has been made that interfaces, with emergency response

team with a GIS-based decision support system

Dust storms

Dust Storms are otherwise called Sand Storms; it

rep-resents one of the common hazards with a broad range

of environmental impacts During an event of a stand

storm, it affects human health in various ways

Sand-storms are a critical reason for car crashes and cause air

transportation delays Goudie (2008a, b) discussed the

products during the process of stand storm eruption

It presents fine particles, salts and chemicals (counting

herbicides) into the environment, with a suite of health

effects, including respiratory complaints as well as

dif-ferent serious illnesses Dust storms can transport

aller-gens including microscopic organisms and growths, in

this manner affect human health Spatial Analysis can be

exceptionally successful in displaying and representation

the degree and the effect of sandstorms Specifically, we

can utilize GIS to give the accompanying capacities in

managing dust storms disaster management

The recent developments in global warming and

climate change have prompted increased activity of

sand storms in various parts of the word Numerous

researchers including Goudie (2008a, b; Xu et  al 2006) have dealt with the examination of sandstorms events and its impact on the land surface, utilizing GIS and Remote Sensing Goudie (2009), discussed the first meth-odology relies upon the investigation of weather station information and representation of the spread of particu-late matter in particular space in association with Dry Mid Temperature and Sub-Dry Temperature, particu-larly in the desert or semi-desert or zones Measurable investigates exhibit that the event of sand–dust storms relate to a high degree of wind speed, which thus is firmly identified with land surface components; then again, a significant relationship between rain event and other atmospheric elements, for example, precipitation and temperature were not watched This is notwithstanding the part of vegetation cover, which has been unequivo-cally connected to dust storms

Health hazards

According to Cioccio and Michael (2007) Emergency management of health impacts, specifically focus on the vulnerable population; and access to medical services; GIS technology is capable in extreme heat attacks, by providing the degree and application for spatially ana-lyzing the distribution of services and its relation to the population at risk Despite all that, the literature that covers the use of GIS for health impact is somewhat lim-ited Many requests for the use of GIS in health focuses

on the methodology, and the practical applications to the domains of vulnerable population, health care facilities distribution, and emergency shelters distribution These three themes could be linked to the census and traf-fic information to provide more detailed spatial models, when dealing with this hazard

Sharma et al (2008) pointed out that one of the key uti-lizations of GIS in pandemic modeling and simulation is

to encourage access to health services by inhabitants who live in and around the security area of a mass gathering

or a social event This will be achieved by outlining an application GIS to help health authorities in the planning and implementation of emergency medical response, with an emphasis on improving support of vulnerable population, including:

a Ensuring continuous routine for health services amid times of restricted access to a security area;

b Ensuring evacuation procedures for medical emer-gencies that are non-event related;

c Providing timely evacuation and health care in the event of mass causality incident

This can be accomplished by outlining a mapping tool

to locate vulnerable community members inside the

affected zone, if there should arise an occurrence of a

pending natural or technological disaster, for example,

a heat wave or power outage Becerra-Fernandez et  al

(2008), explained that GIS could be used to for specifying

access and evacuation routes, for approaching or in

pro-gress emergency or disaster management events Goals

may incorporate shelters, schools or other predefined

destinations outside of the security zone Chandana et al

(2007) The key support of GIS in a pandemic episode

can be through the utilization of GIS intending to general

public health issues, particularly, to characterize its uses

and restrictions in managing the inquiries of

describ-ing the vulnerable population GIS supports advanced

intervention operations, for example, Roland Daley et al

(2015) have highlighted some of these issues as following:

a Choosing sites for community flu centers and

vacci-nation stations

b Monitoring and assessing effect of vaccination

cent-ers and stations

c Canceling public events, and gatherings

d Closing schools, meetings and gatherings

e Restricting utilization of public transportation

frame-works

f Identifying potential groups quarantine and isolation

facilities

g Enforcing people to follow group or individual

iso-lates

Spatial analysis applications in technological hazards

Infrastructure disruption and malfunction

Cova and Church (1997) and Cimellaro (2016) discussed

an approach for purposely recognizing neighborhoods

that may go up against transportation challenges during

an emergency evacuation A description of this nature

offers an interesting approach to manage assessing

group of defenselessness in regions subject to advanced

dynamic risks of uncertain spatial impact (e.g., hazardous

spills on roadways) A heuristic estimation is delineated

which can be usable for conveying useful, the excellent

answer for this model in a GIS setting, as it was

associ-ated with a study region

Camps (1993) presented a new computerized risk

management framework for use by less experienced risk

management personnel who to reduce the likelihood

and seriousness of accidents The framework, which was

developed, is suitable for use in oil, gas, or chemical

pro-cessing sites It joins scientific models and calculation

tools for accident simulation and building a database

that incorporates accidents scenarios and response plans

It can likewise be utilized as a part of an emergency

situation to decide favored approaches to find external

assistance

Spatial analysis applications in manmade hazards

Mass gathering and civil unrest

Numerous sorts of mass gathering and the concentration

of population change participating in such events may vary, depends on the nature of the event, its location and the time and season of the event For instance, civil dem-onstrations, outdoor rock concerts, and a football match are typical examples where there is clear variation in the density of population attending these events Accord-ing to McDonald (2008), these occasions regularly, don’t draw in one sort of participants Therefore, risks might

be connected with weather related sickness, harmful impacts of medications, or injury because of members attempting to draw near to the stage Bradler et al (2008), concluded that political events, for example, political parties conventions might have several risks, associated with This incorporate trauma or toxic impacts of depres-sion related to a political protest or terrorism-related incidents Becerra-Fernandez et al (2008) have indicated that GIS spatial analysis is valid in this applications, as it provides:

1 Specifying the dissemination of individuals around the event proximity

2 Analyzing the scope and approach for mapping evac-uation if there should be an occurrence of an emer-gency

3 Determining the positions and movement of law enforcement in the field

4 Analyzing the pattern of development of masses

5 Supporting effective decision-making on evacuation and response to an emergency situation

Terrorism

Kwan and Lee (2005) have shown that the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, has not quite recently impacted multi-level structures in an urban center They have also influenced by their surroundings at the street level in ways that reduced the time limits for the speed of emergency response The capacity of using progressing 3D GIS for the headway and execution of GIS-based intelligent emergency response systems The fact was at urging a quick emergency response to ter-rorist attacks on multi-level structures (e.g., multi-story office structures) A system design and a framework data show that facilitates the ground transportation capabili-ties with the inside courses inside multi-level structures into a protected 3D GIS was examined Issues of using adaptable representation stages were also discussed especially the prerequisite for the remote and versatile response plan Critical decision support functionalities were moreover considered with particular reference to

the utilization of framework based most restricted way

computations A test use of expected 3D structure data

shows a GIS database for a nearby study area was

dem-onstrated by Kwan and Lee (2005) The study indicates

that reaction delay inside multi-level structures can be

any longer than deferrals caused on the ground

trans-portation framework, have the potential for impressively

decreasing these postponements

Johnson (2003) demonstrated that in times of crisis,

the disaster managers have the necessary commitment

in regards to quickly and adequately managing any

situ-ation that may happen An adjusted GIS applicsitu-ation was

delivered engaging a brief based examination of a

catas-trophe occasion facilitated with the centralization of

masses distinguished correctly to the room level The GIS

Emergency Management System (GEMS) application is

an astute structure to be utilized as a part of the

Emer-gency Operation Center (EOC) to help the heading of

the response On the off chance that a calamity needs to

happen, the intervention and recovery attempts could be

at initially focused on the most fundamental areas of the

greatest convergence of people

Challenges and trends

Goodchild (2006) indicated that various events,

includ-ing the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2005, the Hurricanes of

the 2005 season, and the 7/7 and 9/11 terrorist’s attacks,

have made each one of us seriously aware of the

short-coming of the modern society Knowing the chronicled

record of the events and where such situations have

hap-pened, notwithstanding the geographic limits of their

effects are apparently essential, primarily when

consoli-dated with data on human population and distribution,

along with other spatially circulated wonders that might

apply to reaction and recuperation (Abdalla et al 2014)

Regardless, GIS and spatial technologies that gather,

ana-lyze, and take into account visualization of such data,

using advanced geomatics technologies in the form of

GIS, remote sensing, GPS, and Photogrammetry These

technologies are unmistakably indispensable in all parts

of the disaster management cycle, from protection,

response, and recovery through acknowledgment to the

reply and conceivable recovery GIS give the preface to

evaluating and mapping hazards, from evacuation

plan-ning to delivery to shelters, to routes planplan-ning to

reha-bilitation and restoration Abdalla (2015) describes it as

it likewise allows for choosing ranges where human

pop-ulation is well on the way to have been influenced by a

disaster, and for allocating assets amid the recuperation

procedure, among various other irreplaceable and crucial

assignments that the GIS brings

One of the distinct challenges in the utilization of

GIS for urban disaster management is the location

dependency of the event, or what is known as the geo-graphic interdependence of the event The proximity of the event can prompt many complexities in deciding the location, space and temporal parameters of the event Various episodes in similar areas can bring about falling

or raising impacts among the diversely affected entities

As to the utility of Spatial Analysis in coordination approaches, the status of the spatial analysis confront noteworthy insufficiencies that can be condensed by the absence of some standard methods in a few districts and additionally the unstructured conventions that are being used when managing complex situations of disasters

in various parts of the world Some portion of this can

be additionally ascribed to the absence of preparing in utilizing GIS frameworks, which can at times cause spe-cialists on call for act wastefully when managing calami-ties Spatial Analysis can bolster viable preparing for disaster management professionals to manage complex circumstances More critically, the advocated require-ment for geospatial information in a few parts of the world requires compelling access to worldwide SDI uti-lizing advanced access protocols and to strengthen the advancement of techniques and strategies for effective decision-making This can be ascribed to the absence

of interoperability in data exchange and processes standardization

The decision-making process confronts a few difficul-ties on the lack of common operating picture for efficient policy implementation process Decision-makers require

to access spatial models actually in the form of real-time data feeds from planning teams, from field observers and remotely gathered information This supports the viable access to operations areas monitoring devices, and as well it enhances the output of emergency management decision making

Summary

The spatial analysis gives powerful means in manag-ing risk and in dealmanag-ing with hazard mappmanag-ing and assess-ment It is likewise compelling in providing visual models that assist decision-makers with utilizing these advances adequately However, spatial analysis can’t be satisfied without getting the exact information, defining proficient strategies and securing viable execution of HR required

in Emergency Management

The extent of this exploration is challenging, with

an endeavor to cover a few risks that may cause disas-ters in urban regions It is essential to deal adequately with emergency management in any of its four stages, i.e., preparedness, mitigation, response, and recov-ery The discussion of the detailed application of spatial analysis overviewing the state-of-the-art application the technology has raised a few issues identified with the

development of the utilization of spatial advances in

dis-aster management, specific questions are:

1 The co-locality of an impact as a result of a series of

events may require more progressed spatial analysis

answers for giving details about the extent of damage,

the cost of harm, the distribution of vulnerable

popu-lation, the indicators of vulnerability and the mean

for a response

2 Issues with data and information frameworks of

interoperability are essential in giving an available

prearrangement through spatial analysis

3 Health related emergencies are more complex to

ana-lyze spatially because of issues identified with private

access to patient’s data, also the difficulty of covering

various scales of events in the limited temporal

time-frame

4 Although the present GIS systems contribute to

advanced spatial analysis capabilities; yet new

meth-odologies for investigation, representation, and

inte-gration are required to offer additional means for

support to urban disaster and emergency

manage-ment community

Abbreviations

GIS: geospatial information systems; GEMS: GIS emergency management

system; EOC: emergency operations centers; ESRI: Environmental Systems

Research Institute; SDSS: spatial decision support system; SDI: spatial data

infrastructure; GPS: global positioning system; 3D: three dimensional; HR:

human resources.

Authors’ information

Dr Rifaat Abdalla is Associate Professor of Geospatial Information Science

with King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah During the past ten years, he served

as Defence Scientist with Defence Research and Development Canada;

the Federal Government of Canada research arm in Defense and Security

Research Also, he was Adjunct Professor with the graduate program in

Disaster and Emergency Management, York University, Toronto; he also served

as a contract faculty with the Geomatics Program, Ryerson University, Toronto

Dr Abdalla received his Ph.D from York University, in 2006 Dr Abdalla has

published extensively in the field of Web-based GIS for Disaster Management

and has received many recognitions and awards, including the 2007 ESRI

Best Scientific Paper, presented by the American Society for

Photogramme-try and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) for papers published in Photogrammetric

Engineering and Remote Sensing Journal and the Best Paper Award of 2009

Conference on Geo-Web Services, held in Cancun, Mexico.

Acknowledgements

This project was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR) at King

Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, under Grant No G-290/980/1434 The author,

therefore, acknowledge with thanks DSR for technical and financial support.

Competing interests

The author declare that he has no competing interests.

Availability of data and materials

The material used in this is paper is in form of published articles and they are

all listed in the reference section.

Funding

This research was part of a project funded by King Abdulaziz University,

Dean-ship of Scientific Research under Grant Number G-290/980/1434.

Received: 6 May 2016 Accepted: 21 November 2016

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